All the things that got right (and wrong)

Posted 7 days ago by i100 staff in ents  Upvote

   Wednesday 21st October 2015 marks the date that Marty McFly and Doc Brown flew through time to visit in the 1989 classic Back to the Future II.

While the film, directed by and starring Michael J Fox and , made many fanciful predictions which we're still waiting for, it was surprisingly correct in some aspects.

Here's what it got right and what it got wrong about the world we live in, in 2015:

Right Fingerprint scanners

Fingerprint recognition, like that used to pay for a taxi in the film, can be found on the latest iPhones and at US passport control. Fuelling cars on rubbish

While you can't exactly scavenge through a wheelie-bin and force feed it through your car's petrol cap (as Doc does to the DeLorean), using waste as a fuel - in the form of biogas, is something we use in 2015. There's even a bus in Bristol that runs entirely on human and food waste.

Hoverboard transportation

The kind with wheels may be banned on British streets, but inventors in the US have managed to create a real using powerful electromagnets and a metal course. The Hendo II, fronted by renowned skateboarder Tony Hawk will be launched on Wednesday. Hands-free games

A young Elijah Wood and his pal denounce Marty for using a video game that needs a handset in the film, suggesting that by 2015 hands-free computer games would be mainstream. Indeed, the film was right, if the popularity of the Xbox Kinect is anything to go by.

Tablet computers

Yep, the 1989 film correctly predicted the rise of the iPad - as shown in a scene where Marty is asked to sign a petition to save the clock tower in Hill Valley on one. Video conferencing

Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts... BTTF2 had it all covered.

Smartglasses

It even predicted GoogleGlass.